i've been dring Jetta 1.8t MT about 2 yrs now... but i'm still questioned about couple things.

Can i just bring it to neutral from 3,4,5th ( i don have 6th lol) when i make a stop or slow down? and
bring it right back up to proper gear correspond to the speed?

for example, i travel at 50mph with 5th and i wanted to slow down so i bring it to neutral and car gets slow down to
20mph and decide to go faster to i give 2,or3rd gear. is it ok? i usually don want to keep the rpm low cuz i don
want to burn more gas in these days!
So in result, i usually just brin git to neutral when i'm dring in NYC cuz of too many stops, and have to go fast when it is...

Oh, and changing gears with skipping one is ok? like goin 2nd to 4th or coming 5th to 3rd.
I never skip shift more than 2 though.

And why people park with 1st gear on??????? I sometimes do, cuz garage guys always put leave it in 1st.
All i know is its for prevent from rolling on the hill by putting 1st or rev..... but why on the plain?

thx!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jlstyle82
Can i just bring it to neutral from 3,4,5th ( i don have 6th lol) when i make a stop or slow down? and

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JL9000

 

does skip down shift also accelerates the wear on the synchros?

and thx for the tips!!!

 

Skipping gears always lead to accelerated wear on the synchros.

 

Leaving my car in 1st is like a person with an automatic leaving it in park. Just always do it.

 

If you skip gears the synchros will wear more. The synchos adjust the transmission's intermediate shaft rotation to the drive shaft, so the bigger difference in rotation speed the more work the synchros have to do. You can help the synchros out by "double clutching like you should". Sorry had to do the quote.

Here is a good page about learning standard shifting and how things work.

http://www.318ti.org/notebook/shifting/

 

The big argument against coasting in neutral, say from 50 to 20, is safety. If you ever have a need to pick up the pace to avoid something (collision) you'll be delayed by the need to engage gear, and delayed longer if you flub the shift (because you didn't rev-match well or tried for the wrong gear).

A situational argument is on a long downhill you may want some engine braking so you don't overheat the brakes.

Otherwise, brakes are cheaper to fix and maintain than the engine/tranny so using the brakes instead of just downshifting to decelerate is ultimately cheaper.